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leonidskiesI have an interesting relationship with Alexis Hall's books. I think Alexis Hall might be my most read author of all time, past lengthy series I read as a child/teenager ('Daisy Meadows' is an aggregate penname for multiple authors, but that would be the highest number, at upwards of 30 and probably closer to 50), and they're* now tied with J.K. Rowling (yikes, but I was a teenager and it was pre-transphobia deep end). Alexis Hall is also very far from my favourite author of all time - I would describe their works as 'pretty good'; they are, however, my partner's favourite author of all time, and we have almost all of their published books, which are many.
*Alexis Hall uses any/all pronouns. I tend to stick with he/she/they
Because of this, Alexis Hall's books are... frequently recommended to me when I'm looking for something lighter than my usual fare. A while back, my partner picked up Something Fabulous as the next one of his I should read (I believe because he had just read Something Extraordinary, the third book), and I slotted it in last year. It was fine! It felt like a fairly standard M/M regency romance that was self-confessed as being uninterested in being strictly historically accurate. The main characters were well-off and pretty annoying in specifically British upper class ways. The plot was pretty much about getting a repressed rich man to realise he was gay and wanted to have loads of hot gay sex with a very pretty man rather than be miserable for the rest of his life. It wasn't uncompelling, but I wasn't particularly wowed.
It took me a solid ten months to get round to reading the next book in the series, Something Spectacular. This, my partner assured me, was where it got good. He was right!
Something Spectacular is a nonbinary romance. Looking at the books I've read in the past, I think it may be the only nonbinary/nonbinary romance I've ever read (though a shoutout to An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, which is not a romance but two of the most prominent characters who certainly have something going on are sort of probably nonbinary). It follows Peggy (nonbinary and genderfluid, she/her), who appeared to be the love interest of the twin of the love interest in Something Fabulous. Except said twin (Belle) turns out to be pretty unambiguously aromantic in this book, and Peggy is still hopelessly in love with her at the start.
So: Belle is searching for what she hopes will be romantic love, and asks Peggy to help her hook up with an opera singer named Orfeo (they/them). Orfeo is immediately interested... in Peggy, who promptly falls in love with them in turn. I feel like I spent quite a while explaining the setup of this book rather than actually talking about how I felt about it, but that's something I like a lot about this work: it's complicated on a very personal level, and only sets the series up to be more so in Something Extraordinary.
Things in this book that I absolutely love:
Things in this book I have more complicated feelings about:
*Alexis Hall uses any/all pronouns. I tend to stick with he/she/they
Because of this, Alexis Hall's books are... frequently recommended to me when I'm looking for something lighter than my usual fare. A while back, my partner picked up Something Fabulous as the next one of his I should read (I believe because he had just read Something Extraordinary, the third book), and I slotted it in last year. It was fine! It felt like a fairly standard M/M regency romance that was self-confessed as being uninterested in being strictly historically accurate. The main characters were well-off and pretty annoying in specifically British upper class ways. The plot was pretty much about getting a repressed rich man to realise he was gay and wanted to have loads of hot gay sex with a very pretty man rather than be miserable for the rest of his life. It wasn't uncompelling, but I wasn't particularly wowed.
It took me a solid ten months to get round to reading the next book in the series, Something Spectacular. This, my partner assured me, was where it got good. He was right!
Something Spectacular is a nonbinary romance. Looking at the books I've read in the past, I think it may be the only nonbinary/nonbinary romance I've ever read (though a shoutout to An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, which is not a romance but two of the most prominent characters who certainly have something going on are sort of probably nonbinary). It follows Peggy (nonbinary and genderfluid, she/her), who appeared to be the love interest of the twin of the love interest in Something Fabulous. Except said twin (Belle) turns out to be pretty unambiguously aromantic in this book, and Peggy is still hopelessly in love with her at the start.
So: Belle is searching for what she hopes will be romantic love, and asks Peggy to help her hook up with an opera singer named Orfeo (they/them). Orfeo is immediately interested... in Peggy, who promptly falls in love with them in turn. I feel like I spent quite a while explaining the setup of this book rather than actually talking about how I felt about it, but that's something I like a lot about this work: it's complicated on a very personal level, and only sets the series up to be more so in Something Extraordinary.
Things in this book that I absolutely love:
- Ohhh my god it's so queer. The book ably establishes its nonbinary protagonist (also bi/pan) and love interest (pan), as well as the gay couple from Something Fabulous (including one grey asexual character and another who specifically includes trans and nonbinary people in his gayness) and a gay side character and bi/pansexual/aromantic side character. Also, all or almost all of the incidental characters are queer. It's indulgently unrealistic for its setting and I love it.
- The novel ends with an m/m/nb/nb foursome which blends different sexual, romantic, and platonic relationships between the characters. This book was traditionally published by an Amazon imprint!! Generally just over the moon about this being a thing.
- I rarely find characters relatable, and it's not something I read books to find. There were, however, a lot of aspects of Peggy and Orfeo that I saw myself in and enjoyed the way that those aspects of the characters were expressed.
- A good third act breakup that was both believable in how it happened and how it resolved!
- I enjoyed the way that friendship and queer found family was written here - the way that the characters know how much they've been wrapped up in each other and how much that should or shouldn't be the case, and the complexity of having someone you love a lot be the cause of a lot of pain. It was interesting and complicated in the way these things deserve to be.
Things in this book I have more complicated feelings about:
- It's quite a tell-ing book. Sometimes, I felt like this meant that Hall didn't trust me to 'get' their characters. I totally understand this as someone who writes trans fiction - especially as Hall is best known for cis M/M work - but for me as a reader it was a little disappointing. It's not their fault, I'm just not the audience for the way some of this was expressed.
- I think maybe I just don't like the way Alexis Hall writes sex? It's probably very good sex and it's very emotionally intimate alongside its physicality, but that just makes me feel like I can't skip it or properly read it.
- There was a level at which the lack of communication between the couple felt contrived. A small chunk of the plot could not happen unless these characters failed to communicate, so they simply started and never finished the same conversation about three times. I understand why this was the case, it just frustrated me sometimes.
